I am just wondering if the majority of people that have Spondylolesthesis out there if their problem has corrected itself or if they have experienced more back pain???It seems to me that the majority of people that I talk to regardless if it's on the board or in person that this disease does not seem to work itself out. I would love to hear from anybody that has had this, that is now better or partially better without surgery.I have now had
spondy for a while now and it's not getting better if anything it's getting worse not to mention I also have Osteoarthritis and a Harrington Rod in my back and I really don't want surgery if I can help it. I would also love anybodys opinion about the surgery. They want to do a PLIF L5 S1 microdisectomy on me, even the name of it is enough to scare anybody away!! :eek: Anyways everybody take good care and TRY and stay pain free.

M.S.
:angel:

Mine had to be corrected by surgery as the slippage instead of front/back went sideways and was in danger of severing my spinal cord. However, let me say that anytime someone has something this severe, I highly recommend that they see a true spine specialist and not the general ortho/neuro surgeons we start out with. With the ADR and the Dynesys systems now available in the US, fixed fusion is not the only answer available, but typically only a true spine specialist will offer more than fixed fusion.

As I suffered multiple severe problems, I did have to have fixed fusion of 10 levels, but thanks to a great spine specialist I am now active and don't suffer with constant severe pain anymore. Have days I don't need anything, and some days maybe need Lidoderm patches, but seldom need oral meds to supplement, and my surgery was only 13 months ago.

Not saying that surgery is the only answer, but highly recommend lots of research and seek opinions from several spine specialists as each doctor has their own preferred methods of dealing with the same ailments and injuries.

Best wishes.

MS,
My daughter was born with congenital spondylolisthesis. Her slippage became greater during her teenage years. Her pediatric ortho tried for two years of non-surgical treatment to alleviate her pain. He tried rest, three months of physical therapy, continued exercising at home, meds such as Celebrex and Bextra (before all of the hoopla), three months of bracing, two more months of PT. Unfortunately none of these helped to take her leg and back pain away. She spent a lot of time on the heating pad and in her friend's hot tub. This was all when she was 14 - 16. While out of town for a relatives funeral, one of the guests even tried tuning forks on her to help the pain, but it wasn't anything long lasting.

Since you have had spondy for a while, I would bet your dr has tried many different treatments. We sought out the opinion of two other pediatric orthos who specialize in scoliosis and spines before agreeing to surgery. Last Jan. she began getting tingling in her feet. Her MRI at that time showed she also had severe stenosis. So we knew it was time for surgery. Because of her young age she wasn't a candidate for any of the newer procedures and waiting two years until she was 18 wasn't even considered. The adult spine specialist and her pediatric ortho did a two level TLIF L4 - S1, laminectomy and discectomy in June. She has been very lucky and at 7 1/2 mo post op is feeling no pain.

Best of luck to you. I hope you a little luckier than she was and find a non-surgical treatment that helps your slip and pain. cas

i'm 17 and i have a grade 2-3 spondylolisthesis. i've known i've had it for almost 2 years, thats when it started bothering me anyway. i didnt have much back pain when it first started up but the pain down my leg was horrible. i went to the specialist and all those people and had physical theropy and to be honest with ya i didnt really follow through with the streches i was to do at home. ((the doctors wanted me to get surgery, and still do but i'm not planning on it.)) the pain going down my leg was really bad i couldnt walk for more then like five minutes. then this past summer i started walking more, just going for walks and such. it hurt to walk but i just kept walking and well after awhile it stopped hurting so much. now i have no pain down the leg at all. but unfortuantly my back pain got worse, it's not so bad thats it's unbearable i only had one day that it was so bad that i coulnt walk. i dont know exactly what it was that made the pain in my leg go away, but i'm doing so0o much better now then what i was 2 years ago even with me not doing my stretches. i have to go for my 6 months check up real so tho, and i'm sure he'll tell me i need sugury just like he has been but so far they've been wrong with saying it would only get worse cuz it's only gotten better for me.


good luck in finding what works for you :)

Hello, :wave:
I have known about my spondy for 8 years and it has done nothing but got worse. I was a grade 1 for the first 5 years. now grade 2 with L-4 bulging and L-5 is gone and bone on bone. I am scheduled for TLIF 2/16/06. I believe TLIF is superiror than PLIF for spondyolithesis because you get fused from the front and the back for stablization. I am no spine specialist so you will need to do research on these approaches. Just what my doc told me. Good -Luck.
Sheri